There's a lot of videos on youtube and such about buffing pokémon. Not even just videos, I'd say it's a fairly popular idea in the competitive pokémon sphere. Pokémon Radical Red is a ROM hack almost based around this idea. It's a popular enough point of discussion and I want to talk about some pokémon that I would wanna see recieve large makeovers and how i would go about that. Not 100% sure im putting this thread in the right place but hopefully this is okay ^^
Silvally
Currently, Silvally is a pokémon in the Zero Use tier, despite being a legendary pokémon. It has 95 in all its stats, which is overall pretty solid. Lack of specialization in any one stat means it can be hard to do anything particularly well, but at the same time, it means you can mold it any way you like. What it lacks for in exciting stats, it makes up for in flexibility, because it can change types depending on the item it holds. Silvally is essentially just mini-arceus. Arceus is a notably very strong pokémon, not only having an additional 25 in each stat, but also having a wider moveset. In a vacuum where Arceus is legal in every situation, there is absolutely no reason to use Silvally instead of Arceus. Arceus is objectively just a straight upgrade.
And so, Silvally could use an interesting buff that
1. Gives it something UNIQUE to make it better than just "arceus but worse"
2. Could give it viability.
My idea is a bit of a far fetched one, and it involves a total rework of Silvally's ability. What if instead of having one type, it had two? This would give Silvally access to every type combo in the game, meaning you could pick it's typing around the playstyle you want. This also gives Silvally a unique niche, as it could easily be built to counter certain pokémon. Clearly, setting the type would have to take place through some sort of in-game feature instead of an item, which also gives Silvally a much needed item slot. I also think Silvally should get a second signature move so it can have another STAB option. I'm not sure if simple a carbon-copy of Multi-Attack is the way to go, as it is already a fairly strong move on a pokémon getting buffed significantly. But since I can't think of anything else, I'm just gonna go with that.
It's ability would stay more or less the same though, just wouldn't be reliant on an item, but an in game mechanic (effectively giving Silvally 171 new forms... that wouldn't be an efficient way to code it in though.)
I think this works well in the lore of Silvally, as it is canonically a pokémon artificially built to hunt Ultra Beasts. Ultra Beasts often have very strange and unpredictable typings, and Silvally being able to be adjusted as a hard counter to these works well both in lore, as well as from a competitive standpoint.
I think this could give Silvally an interesting use-case as a pokémon people employ when an existing check wouldn't fit on their team. Ultimately it may not be great in a vacuum, but its access to any type combo means your silvally could be designed to take down any pokemon that otherwise could be a problem for your team. Access to items would also be a very substantial buff. I'm curious to hear what other people think about this though, i kinda just thought of this randomly.
Silvally
Currently, Silvally is a pokémon in the Zero Use tier, despite being a legendary pokémon. It has 95 in all its stats, which is overall pretty solid. Lack of specialization in any one stat means it can be hard to do anything particularly well, but at the same time, it means you can mold it any way you like. What it lacks for in exciting stats, it makes up for in flexibility, because it can change types depending on the item it holds. Silvally is essentially just mini-arceus. Arceus is a notably very strong pokémon, not only having an additional 25 in each stat, but also having a wider moveset. In a vacuum where Arceus is legal in every situation, there is absolutely no reason to use Silvally instead of Arceus. Arceus is objectively just a straight upgrade.
And so, Silvally could use an interesting buff that
1. Gives it something UNIQUE to make it better than just "arceus but worse"
2. Could give it viability.
My idea is a bit of a far fetched one, and it involves a total rework of Silvally's ability. What if instead of having one type, it had two? This would give Silvally access to every type combo in the game, meaning you could pick it's typing around the playstyle you want. This also gives Silvally a unique niche, as it could easily be built to counter certain pokémon. Clearly, setting the type would have to take place through some sort of in-game feature instead of an item, which also gives Silvally a much needed item slot. I also think Silvally should get a second signature move so it can have another STAB option. I'm not sure if simple a carbon-copy of Multi-Attack is the way to go, as it is already a fairly strong move on a pokémon getting buffed significantly. But since I can't think of anything else, I'm just gonna go with that.
It's ability would stay more or less the same though, just wouldn't be reliant on an item, but an in game mechanic (effectively giving Silvally 171 new forms... that wouldn't be an efficient way to code it in though.)
I think this works well in the lore of Silvally, as it is canonically a pokémon artificially built to hunt Ultra Beasts. Ultra Beasts often have very strange and unpredictable typings, and Silvally being able to be adjusted as a hard counter to these works well both in lore, as well as from a competitive standpoint.
I think this could give Silvally an interesting use-case as a pokémon people employ when an existing check wouldn't fit on their team. Ultimately it may not be great in a vacuum, but its access to any type combo means your silvally could be designed to take down any pokemon that otherwise could be a problem for your team. Access to items would also be a very substantial buff. I'm curious to hear what other people think about this though, i kinda just thought of this randomly.
